I’m a small person sometimes. Maybe I’m a small person most of the time; I’m not sure. But I went into this book predisposed to not liking it. Why, might you ask? Well for starters, I generally don’t like follow-on books about peripheral characters. I mean, they’re peripheral. You’re not supposed to care what they do or why. Second, I generally don’t care for books that are a series of letters. It’s just too difficult to develop characters well and keep me interested. And third, and this is where I divulge my smallness, the book was written by Jane Austen’s distant relation (like Jane’s greatgreatgreatgreatgreatgreat niece or something similar), who STILL keeps the “Austen” name. And it just felt to me like a crutch and that I should be wary of it lacking in real artistic talent and that was the only way she could publish.

Well, shame on me, to both. I really enjoyed A Visit to Highbury: Another View of Emma, due in large part to vivid characterizations and real, honest-to-goodness writing of which Jane herself would have approved.

I was hooked from the first letter. The book is a series of letters between two sisters: Mrs. Pinkney (new to the Emma world) and Mrs. Goddard who, as some of you may recall, was Harriet Smith’s school mistress. In the original, Mrs. Goddard never had dialog, but it was made clear that she had some standing in the community, was a friend of Emma’s father, and was generally well-involved in Highbury.

The sisters need to catch up after a long period of slothful correspondence and Mrs. Goddard begins to tell Mrs. Pinkney all of the goings on of Highbury life. Of course, there has to be some rather blatant contrivances to make the dialog go back and forth. A few examples: Mrs. Pinkney’s husband’s apothecary is the very same one that Emma’s sister, Mrs. John Knightley uses for her family in London. Thus Mrs. Pinkney can report on the Knightleys of London. Or Mrs. Pinkney runs into Mr. Elton in Bath on his wife-hunting trip. And so forth. But for all of that, Ms. Austen-Leigh delightfully wraps both Mrs. Pinkney’s London world and Mrs. Goddard’s Highbury world together, giving some well-thought out explanations and insights into the major characters of Highbury. One of my favorite examples, despite how I dislike Harriet Smith, is more knowledge of the Martin family, since the sisters met Harriet while attending Mrs. Goddard’s school. Another wonderful insight is into the fall of Mrs. and Miss Bates in society and poverty.

There is only as much insight into Emma and Knightley as is realistic for two sisters really unrelated to their romance can be. And that is disappointing on the one hand but very appropriate and satisfying on the other.

Sadly, this book did not feed my thirst for plausible explanations of why George Knightley would fall in love with selfish, immature little Emma. But I don’t suppose that Ms. Austen-Leigh set out to do so. In the mean time, I enjoyed enlarging my perspective of Highbury and will have to wait until someone else can try to pen an explanation to this mystery. ( )

Charming... ( )

I first read this book about 10 years ago, during one of my "Emma" phases. I fell in love with it. It was the first Austen segual I had ever read and it set the bar exceedingly high. So far very few have come close to equalling it much less surpassing it.It as stated was written by Austen's own great-great-great grand neice, but whether she was able to hone in on JA's tecnique by shared family blood or just her own talent(Maybe both) may never be known.But this is a delightful compaign book to Emma. I recommend any Austen fan read this wonderful novel.























j ( )

Mrs. Mary Goddard, headmistress of The School, watches on with fascination as Miss Emma Woodhouse shakes up the village of Highbury. A pea from her sister in London, Mrs. Charlotte Pinkney, leads Mrs. Goddard to write down all the happenings and romantic entanglements that occur as Emma tries her hand at matchmaking. When Charlotte discovers a connection to Emma's older sister, the gossip exchange starts in earnest. Simultaneously, Mary and Charlotte discuss Charlotte's recent second marriage, which is not turning out as she had envisioned nor hoped. As the Highbury romances resolve into happy endings, so too does Charlotte come to a better understanding of her Mr. P. Mrs. Goddard and Mrs. Pinkney's correspondence continues to expanding Emma's story in Later Days at Highbury. (Joan Austen-Leigh is the great niece of Jane Austen.)

This is not a sequel to Emma, but an account of events during the same period according to Mrs. Goddard, the headmistress of the school where Harriet Smith has been brought up. The story consists of letters between Mrs. Goddard and her unhappily remarried sister. The story is mainly focused on the sister's life, with the events of Emma being recounted by Mrs. Goddard in her letters.

This is, I think, wise. By choosing a background character, one who is of a lower class than Emma, and using the letter format, Austen-Leigh has avoided most problems with the reader's preconceptions.

The story itself it quite entertaining. It is not the type of story that Jane Austen herself told, being about middle-aged, non-gentry, but it has a spirit and worldview that I imagine that she would share.

The best part is - there's a sequel! ( )